Key human rights activist Nabeel Rajab has been released in Bahrain, after spending two years in jail for taking part in mass protests that have rocked the Gulf state since 2011.

“After two years in
prison, I see Bahrain's political environment as more difficult
and still without a roadmap for real reforms,” Rajab, the
chief of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), told
AP.

49-year-old Rajab was welcomed by a coterie of supporters in the
capital city of Manana, and paid a visit to his mother’s grave,
before returning home.

Rajab was initially jailed for three months in May 2012 after
tweeting a criticism of the Prime Minister, Prince Khalifa, the
uncle of King Hamad, and openly criticizing the country’s regime
on RT while appearing on the Julian Assange Show.

Although the ruling was later reversed, a subsequent new charge
for organizing “illegal gatherings” in a country where
all public demonstrations have to be agreed by the authorities
landed Rajab in prison for three years. The term was later
commuted to two years, though appeals for early release for good
behaviour were rejected.

“It is important to note that Rajab is not being released as
a gesture of goodwill, but rather because he served the full
length of his arbitrary detention sentence… During his detention,
he faced dire conditions and was subjected to ill-treatment and
torture,” said a statement from BCHR.

“His release comes at a time when thousands of others
continue to be imprisoned and targeted on trumped up
charges.”

The tiny island country, which has been ruled by the Sunni
Khalifa family for over 200 years, was shaken by protests during
the Arab Spring in 2011, led by pro-democracy activists and
majority Shi’ite leaders. Rajab is also a Shi’ite.

The uprising was harshly and successfully suppressed, but
tensions persist in the state, which hosts a US naval base and
maintains close ties with Washington.

On Saturday, violence broke out at a ceremony outside the capital
commemorating a 15 year-old boy who opposition leaders say was
shot by the police at a funeral two months ago. Police said that
attendees pelted officers with Molotov cocktails, and that they
were forced to reply with tear gas, though there has been no
information on further casualties.